---- Chapter 6 Erika POV: The plane climbed through the dark sky, and the glittering lights of Austin shrank below me, becoming a distant, meaningless constellation before being swallowed by the clouds. | had wanted to make that city my home, to weave my life into its streets alongside Coleton. Now, leaving it felt like an amputation. My heart was a dull, hollow ache in my chest, a space that had been carved out and left empty. | didn' t cry. | was too numb. | leaned my head against the cool glass of the window and fell into a fitful, dream-filled sleep, a chaotic reel of five years of memories playing in my mind-his laughter in our tiny college apartment, the taste of cheap pizza on a Friday night, the weight of his arm around me, the cold shock in his eyes in the hallway. It all swirled together, a painful mix of what was real and what had been a lie. My phone was on airplane mode, a small, blessed bubble of silence. But the moment we landed and | reconnected to the world, the dam broke. A tidal wave of notifications flooded my screen. Dozens of missed calls from Coleton. An avalanche of texts. | scrolled through them with a detached, clinical curiosity. The ---- emotional arc was predictable. It started with panicked confusion, shifted to desperate apologies, then escalated to frantic declarations of love. Erika, | swear, there was nothing going on with Kyra. She was just a friend. You have to believe me. | know | messed up. | took you for granted. | was a stupid, arrogant fool. | can' t lose you. You' re everything to me. Five years, babe. That has to count for something. His pleas of 'I can' t live without you' felt so much more urgent now, so much more desperate than they ever had before. It was sickening. He hadn't been this passionate when he thought | was just Erika Larson, the competent but unremarkable software architect. He only found this earth- shattering love for me when he discovered | was Aura, the woman who held his entire future in the palm of her hand. All his excuses about being lonely, about needing friends-they were just that. Excuses. The truth was, he had gotten comfortable. He had a new life, a new support system, a new girl to race up mountains with. | had become the long- distance girlfriend, the familiar but absent comfort he could call when it was convenient. | didn' t reply. | deleted the entire thread, erased his number, and blocked him. A driver was waiting to take me to my family' s estate. My father was in his study when | arrived. He looked up from his ---- desk, his expression unreadable. He didn' t lecture me. He didn 't say 'I told you so.' He just looked at me, his eyes filled with a quiet, understanding sadness. "Welcome home, sweetheart," was all he said. The days that followed were a blur of forced tranquility. A meeting was arranged. Bret Harrell, CEO of Harrell Tech, was everything you' d expect a business rival-turned-suitor to be. He was handsome, impeccably dressed, and possesseda calm, steady confidence that Coleton' s frantic energy had always lacked. We met for dinner at a restaurant so exclusive | was sure it didn' t have a public phone number. We didn' t flirt. We negotiated. It was a calm, courteous assessment of a potential merger, both personal and professional. "| know the timing is... complicated," Bret said, his gaze direct and strangely comforting. "l know you have a history. ' m not asking for your heart, Erika. Not right now. I' m offering a partnership. A foundation of mutual respect we can build on. Both in the boardroom and outside of it." He smiled, a small, genuine gesture, and pulled out my chair for me. A gentleman. It felt foreign. "Okay," | said, my heart a placid, dead sea. There were no ripples. No waves. Just stillness. It seemed a fair trade. Coleton didn' t give up. The calls continued from unknown numbers, which | would block as soon as they came in. The ---- texts, when they managed to get through, became more unhinged. You can' t just disappear! You owe me an explanation! Was it all a lie? Our whole relationship? Was | just an experiment for you? I'm coming to find you, Erika. ' m not letting you go. | knew, with a certainty that chilled me to the bone, that physically, he and Kyra were probably innocent. There was no sordid affair, no secret hotel rooms. But it didn' t matter. Did it matter if the gun was loaded with bullets or blanks when it was pointed at your heart? The betrayal was in the choice. The choice to lie. The choice to prioritize her feelings over mine. The choice to protect her by throwing me to the wolves. That was the wound, and it was fatal. My brother occasionally fed me updates, little snippets of news he thought might bring me some satisfaction. Kyra Boyd was facing a massive lawsuit from our company and was drowning in legal fees. Coleton' s performance at the Austin office had cratered. He was unfocused, erratic, and his position was hanging by a thread. My father and brother hadn' t lifted a finger against him. They didn' t need to. He was self -destructing all on his own. | felt no pleasure in his downfall. No sense of victory. | just felt... nothing. A vast, echoing emptiness. That' s when | realized what it truly meant to be over someone. ---- It wasn' t hate. It wasn' t anger. It was indifference. He had become, finally and completely, irrelevant. Title: A Princess? No! I'm the Female General! In "A Princess? No! I'm the Female General!" by CrushReel, Adela Taylor, a noble family's daughter, disguises herself as her brother to secure their Duke title by joining the army. Despite facing obstacles, she achieves remarkable success. 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